Ladies and Gentlemen,



This an original Martini-Henry, in 450/577, with original Kynoch loaded ammo.

Great looking old rifle!

Looks to be in very good shape awesome
Very nice ammo belt.
But still just a glorified 45-70

Saeed,

Are you the owner of that vintage piece? Our next raffle could be a tuskless elephant cow with that rifle.

Saeed

Great looking rifle. An old beduine rifle? To be serious those bullets don't look too good. Almost anything should be better than any 45-70

Is this one of Walther's hog rifles It would fit him just fine

/ JOHAN

Ann,

Yes ma'am, this one of a number of these rifles that I have.

I think I will stick to my good eold faithful, the 375/404 for all my dangerous game hunging.

JOHAN,

Walter is a bloody WIMP!

He refused to even be in the same room when I shot this rifle. He thought because it was such an old gun, it might not be safe to shoot. When I insisted on shooting it, he ran up the starirs, with his fingers in his ears.

He never got into his head that this is a rifle of genuine make, and can take whatever it was designed for.

Unlike that silly bit of over-engineered fire stick they call the Blaser R-93

Is this one of the series that was recently discovered in an old Nepalese armory? The one you show is about ten times more ornate, but already I've seen three of the Nepal examples at the local range. The first guy had some Old Western Scrounger ammo for it. Some onlookers had him touch off the first round with sandbags over the action and standing to the side. Of course this proved unnecessary.

HI,

MR.Saeed that would look great next to a nice mount or lying on a skin rug on the wall, . Kev

Saeed, as a real fan of old rifles, and a user of them as well, I wonder why you have not hunted it? Why not? You have shot mountain of buffalo. Why not try an old rifle? You are obviously an accomplished game shot- to put it mildly, so I have no doubt you would succeed in spades.

I have less interest in hunting Africa than most here do. Perhaps because I have little interest in the modern whizbangers like your .375/404. But were I to go, I would certainly campaign an old rifle. Perhaps a rifle like this one, or perhaps a hammered double with bp cartridges. Strange to many here, I cannot imagine hunting Africa with anything else.

I hope you take it out there and give it one more chance to smell the air and the blood of Africa. Such old rifles deserve it. I'd be more than happy to help you with the bullets.

Brent

Wait till you see my Swinburn 577-450 sporter...
Yup, she'll do!

Saeed,

If you can find some molds and cast some "hard cast" .458" 400 gr lead wonder bullets for it and then load them to around 1700fps I hear that it will make an excellent rifle for Cape Buffalo!! I've read on these very forums where that combination will out perform the .458 Win Mag! Just think of it as a "British .45-70" and you'll be on the right track in developing loads for it. It ought to make the perfect Cape Buffalo rifle for Walter!

-Bob F.

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Saeed,

Isn't the barrel length a disqualifer for this being a guide gun?

Maybe this should be the gun that has to be used on the next Buff Raffle Hunt.HI

Roger QSL

LE270,

Yes thaye are original 450/577 ammo, and by the looks of the bases, primers and headstamps, of about 6 different types.

Saeed,

What is your best estimate about the year that rifle was made, and the year(s) those cartridges were loaded?

LE270,

I would not even hazzard a guess at the rifle, but would imagine it to be at least 100 years old. It had some engraving on the receiver originally, now it has all worn out. It also looks like it had been shot quite a lot. There is almost no rifling left in the barrel.

I will slug it and see what the bore size is.

Here is a photo of the ammo.

Saeed,



Are all the cartridges in that ammo belt really 450/577? I can't tell from the picture whether all the cartridge brass is the same, but there are definitely several different bullets there.

Saeed: Nice old Martini. I saw a couple at a gun show recently; unfortunately the guy wasn't selling, just showing. This is the rifle of choice in the movie "Zulu".

Now that's a great old gun. It would be interesting to know the history behind such a weapon.

Jim Miller

Saeed,

Thanks for posting the photo of the cartridges. It's an impressive array! From the looks of it, All nine of those seem to be different. Are they all Boxer primed, or are some of them Berdan primed? Do you have loading dies for this cartridge, and have you reloaded any?

The Martini Henry is about as African as a Brown Bess is American.

.

Very nice, I have had 2 of them for about 20 years now one long lever and short, bought the form dies from RCBS and have used cast lead to hunt deer with it, its just as much fun as muzzle loaders